Simply Splendid

Coat Paint Shop painted two custom Bullitt cargo bikes for Joel at Splendid Cycles. Splendid is a Portland company which caters directly to the cargo bike market. So, if you're looking for a Bullitt, Metrofiets, or other cargo bike to carry your kids or your gear in, going to Splendid is a great place to start.

The first bike we did was a liquid paint job with two shades of red with black and gold slashes designed by Matt Carinal of Signal Cycles for Splendid. The Bullitt logo was remade in a nice classic looking script that really turned out sharp. Joel, owner of Splendid, took this bike to Interbike in Las Vegas this year and says it really turned heads and got a lot of air time. Speaking with Joel today he noted that "the paint makes all the difference when you want people to take notice" and thanked us for doing such a good job. We couldn't be happier, knowing we help our customers get noticed.

Birger, in the paint shop, took a few minutes to tell us a little about the process of painting a cargo bike...

What are the biggest differences between painting a Bullitt cargo frame and a regular bike frame?

"The cargo bikes are so much bigger than a typical frame we paint. They don't really fit in our paint room so we had to come up with a fix by rigging up a special stand. It's actually more like painting an automobile. You need to balance the stripes on either side of the bike, not just wrap them around the tube. Then there's an undercarriage too which got a little extra clear coat to help protect it from all the debris that's going to get kicked up."

What was the biggest challenge?

"Definitely size, but that's cool because we got to try something different. We have the bike thing dialed, it's fun to work on something new, solve a new problem. Now we have a system for painting cargo bikes that works and we got to test it twice."

What are you most pleased about from the finished work?

"That we got all those slashes to line up across the frame. We do a lot of detail line work on the Speedvagens and other builders bikes but like I said earlier, there's a difference in wrapping slashes or lines and having to line them up parallel. Definitely a 'measure twice (or four times), paint once' scenario."

The second bike we painted for Splendid was a metallic purple with gold accents. In contrast to the red bike, it had a very modern feel to it. One thing to note is the use of powdercoat on the wheels to tie in the accent color from the frame. We specialize in bringing colors from the frame to the component sets but most of the bikes we do have rim brakes so we don't get the opportunity to do rims often. Looks great though.

This bike ended up being used in the BBC America show Richard Hammond's Crash Course. Hammond's challenge in this episode is to work as a bike messenger with King Courier in San Francisco, the owners of the Bullitt, and whose signature colors are purple and gold. He succeeds in picking up and delivering a keg back to the office of King Courier and is rewarded with a pint at the end of a long day.

You can view all of the photos from this project and more on the Coat flickr page. If you're interested in knowing more about what we can do for you, drop us a line anytime. info@coatpaintshop.com